


Die Anywhere Else

by irltimothy



Series: song fics [3]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-12 11:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irltimothy/pseuds/irltimothy
Summary: Hal is a lonely teenager until he walks through woods and meets Dave and their friendship sparks





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> hey ive been gone forever, idk how many chapters will be in this but it's an idea i have so let's roll with it while i have it

            It was a chilly late afternoon as Hal walked through the woods. He paused every now and then to pick up a stick. He would break the stick down to tiny pieces before discarding it entirely. He adjusted his backpack slightly as he walked. Nobody ever bothered him in the woods which was nice. He needed the alone time to think, to get away from home where everything just felt wrong. He blew out a breath, the cold air making it into a cloud. He smiled at that. Winter was such a peaceful time of year, not a lot of noise in the trees and nobody else was trekking through the woods. At least that’s what Hal thought most of the time. That’s when he nearly ran into someone crouched on the ground.

            “Whoa sorry, I was just- wait, what are you doing out here?” Hal said.

            “Practicing tracking, what are you doing out here?” The guy said. He was about Hal’s age, a little older looking but not by much. He was taller but not too much bigger than Hal. Practicing tracking? Tracking what?

            “I’m taking a walk home from school.”

            “Seems like a roundabout way to go, it’d be quicker if you turned around and headed where everybody else does along the road.”

            “Excuse me? You don’t even know where I live.”

            “You live where everybody else lives. I’m in these woods all the time, nobody lives in them and no offense, but you don’t look like the outdoorsy type.”

            “Hey that’s…that’s fair, I guess,” Hal paused for a moment unsure of what to say next. He adjusted his glasses before speaking again. “Um, my name’s Hal, what’s yours?”

            The guy grumbled under his breath. Hal had the feeling he was just bothering him at this point. He stood up and brushed his hands off on faded jeans. “It’s David.”

            “David, it’s nice to meet you! Do you go to school around here?”

            “No, I’m home schooled.”

            “Oh, isn’t that lonely?”

            “I wouldn’t say so, I prefer to be alone. That’s why I’m out here, tracking deer.”

            “There’s deer out here?”

            “Yeah, there’s deer, foxes, I even tracked a wolf once, or a really big dog, I think. I never actually saw it.”

            “That’s…so cool!” Hal said. Dave blinked slowly he looked confused. He let out a small laugh and grinned.

            “Maybe I could show you some time. Do you come by here often?” Dave said.

            “Not as often as you apparently, but I could stop by after school.”

            “That’s cool, I’m guessing you still wanna walk through the woods to get home. I go East to get out of here,” Dave said as he pointed in the direction he was talking about.

            “Oh, I’m going, uh, that way.” Hal said and pointed in a different direction.

Dave nodded. “Looks like I’ll see you tomorrow then, Hal.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

At that the two went separate ways. Hal felt a warmth in his chest. He felt like he had just made a friend. He trekked home through the leaves wondering what he and Dave would do with their time tomorrow.


	2. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sometimes ao3 converts my indents sometimes it doesnt what can you do about it, its frustrating but i know nobody'll fix that so im not gonna bother getting miffed, especially since this is still legible i just know the formatting is different here and here is why: my indents. won't. transfer.

Hal hummed as he walked, crunching down on leaves with each footfall. He had wondered in his last period of the day how exactly he was going to meet up with Dave this time, they hadn’t planned a meeting spot. He silently cursed himself on the walk home for not getting his phone number or even planning a spot to meet up at. He just had to hope he would run into Dave walking the same way he was yesterday. _I am walking the same way right? Oh no what if I’m not? What if Dave doesn’t even show up and he was just joking around? Yeah, I would be the one to fall for th-_ Hal’s thoughts were interrupted as a figure jumped down from a low hanging branch. Hal jumped back, clearly startled by the presence of the figure but relaxed instantly when he saw who it was. “Dave! You scared me to death!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know exactly what to say when I saw you walking so, I jumped out of the tree,” Dave said.

“Didn’t know what to say? You’re kidding right? A simple, ‘hey!’ or ‘hello!’ would have worked,” Hal said. Dave was silent for a moment before scratching the back of his head and grumbling under his breath. _He must do that a lot_ Hal thought, _that grumbling happened yesterday too. Maybe he’s not trying to be rude._ “Never mind, I didn’t mean to tell you how to greet people. What are we doing today?”

“I could show you some tracking skills if you want,” Dave said.

“I meant to ask yesterday, how are you tracking if there are leaves everywhere?”

“Oh, yesterday I wasn’t exactly looking for tracks, I was out looking for antlers for my room. My old foster brother stole the last pair I had before I moved. So, I was loosely tracking where a deer might have been to hopefully snag some antlers.”

“Huh, how do you do that?”

“Well, it’s easier than tracking down a deer to look at or hunt that’s for sure. Here look at this for example,” Dave said. He ran his hand over the trunk of the tree. “See these score marks? A deer was either eating the bark or it was a buck running its antlers over the tree. It’s a bit early for them to be eating tree bark since it hasn’t even snowed yet so it’s more likely it was a buck.”

“Interesting, so all you have to do is follow the trees with the score marks and hope for the best. That’s pretty cool,” Hal said.

“You got that right,” Dave ran his fingers over the score marks for a few more moments, deep in thought. Hal watched quietly not wanting to break his concentration. Dave started to walk away from the tree and Hal followed. Dave talked quietly as he walked. “A key part of tracking is knowing the animal, that’s why I was checking the score marks. You have to guess what the deer is going to do by knowing about deer, what they do, how they get food and water. Right now, their rut is over so bucks aren’t looking for doe. This buck is probably looking for water considering how close the creek is.”

“There’s a creek nearby?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of big too, there’s a dead tree that fell over that makes it easy to cross for us.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“The worst that could happen is you’d get wet it’s not so bad, I cross it all the time to get home.”

Hal wasn’t convinced but he followed Dave regardless, still interested in the tracking. Dave was right about the creek being close, they couldn’t have walked more than a hundred yards before Hal could hear the creek babble. They passed more trees with score marks on them. “Do all these trees looking like this mean you’re definitely going to find some antlers?” Hal asked.

“It isn’t always guaranteed but I have a good feeling. You’re kind of like a good luck charm. I don’t usually find trees like this this fast.”

Hal felt his face grow hot. _A compliment from a cool guy…Say something!_ “Uh, thanks. Just don’t use me for antler hunting and throw me out afterwards!” _Stupid._

The two grew silent for a moment as they approached the creek. There was in fact a large dead tree over the creek as a makeshift bridge. The creek was exceptionally large. Dave jogged forward to the creek’s edge and picked up something off the ground. It looked like two weird sticks at first. But upon closer inspection Hal realized they were in fact antlers! Hal caught up with Dave at the edge of the creek. “Nice!” Hal said.

Dave stared at Hal for a moment and handed him one of the antlers. “I’m not going to toss you aside Hal, I’ve had that happen to me too many times already. I’d never do that to a friend.”

Hal stood dumbfounded. “Dave I uh, I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry, first of all, for making you think I thought you were that kind of guy. I guess that was a bad joke. I didn’t even think about what you’ve probably been through I-.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s ok. I don’t talk to a lot of people and the ones I do don’t know I’m a foster kid. I don’t know what it is about you, but I trust you. You’ve got a kind attitude.”

Hal smiled and took the deer antler. Huh, he had a friend. A real friend.


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how did i forget to plug my twitter this entire time, anyway my commission info has shifted to twitter, i could really use the help since im trying and failing to save up to not only move out but get chest surgery both of which i need so hey think about sharing my tweet please !
> 
> https://twitter.com/irltimothy/status/1045479869482766336

“Hey, Hal, I’ve got something I wanna show you,” Dave said one day. Hal had just met up with him at the creek but if Dave had something to show him, maybe it was important?

“What is it?” Hal asked.

“It’ll be better if it’s a surprise. C’mon I’ll show you.”

Hal shrugged and followed Dave through the woods. They walked and talked for a while, Hal enjoyed this more than he showed. Dave was such a good friend to him. The two had been meeting about every day for a couple weeks now. Hal had wondered if he should invite Dave to his house at some point, it’d be nice to have him meet his step sister. But his dad could be so unpredictable, and his step mother was just…weird. “Hal? You alright?” Dave asked. Hal snapped out of his thoughts.

“Oh ye-yeah, sorry I was just, thinking.”

“Don’t worry about it, look this is what I brought you here to look at,” Dave gestured forward.

Hal adjusted his glasses as he stared ahead at a wooden cabin. “A cabin?”

“Yeah! It’s abandoned, I come here all the time to get away from it all. It’s like my own secret hideaway. So, I wanted to show it to you, so it could be our secret hideaway. Just don’t go showing everybody, I trust you though.”

“I wouldn’t show anybody this, Dave, but this is so…so cool.”

“You think it’s cool out here just wait until we’re inside,” Dave said. He opened the door to the cabin and invited Hal inside. Hal noticed it was relatively clean in the cabin. Dave must keep it nice. It had furniture in it like an arm chair and a coffee table. It was practically livable in there. It had a fireplace too and bookshelves, but they were mostly bare. Hal set his backpack down on the ground. Dave walked to the fireplace while Hal explored around. There was a stack of chopped up wood and sticks next to the fireplace. Hal adjusted his glasses as he looked over the shelves. There were some pictures stacked, none of them had frames and they looked very old.

“Are these yours?” Hal asked.

“What the pictures? No, previous owner I’m guessing. Why?”

“Well this guy kind of looks like you, like he could be your dad or something. Haven’t you looked at them?

“I don’t see it.”

Hal held up a picture of a man. He was standing next to a blonde hair man in sunglasses, they were both smiling. Hal flipped the picture over, the back had John and Kaz scribbled on the back in pen. It started to feel warm in the room already. Hal looked over and sure enough Dave had lit a roaring fire. And a cigarette? “You smoke?” Hal asked.

“Yeah, I thought you knew that?”

“No. Smoking’s bad for you, you know.”

“So, I’m guessing you don’t want one.”

“No of course not! I’m not 18.”

Dave snorted at that. “I started when I was 15, just because I’m 18 now doesn’t mean I just started smoking.”

“You’re only 18? I thought you were at least 19.”

“Nah, I just look older, it’s the stubble, I actually just turned 18 not too long ago. I’m lucky my foster parents are keeping me around until I’m done with their classes.”

“What are you going to do after that?”

Dave paused, he took a thoughtful drag from his cigarette before speaking. “I’m joining the military.”

“You don’t want to go to college?”

“Nah it’s not for me. I’m guessing that’s what you’re doing.”

“Yep! I’m gonna be an engineer. I can’t wait to go, to get out of here. Know what I mean?”

“Of course. I want to get pretty far away from here. These foster parents were alright I guess but…” Dave trailed off. He took another drag and seemed to savor it.

“My dad really sucks, and my mom died when I was young.” Hal blurted out. _Nobody asked! Why did you do that?_

Dave laughed at that, not in a mocking manner. “That’s sudden. I figured something was up, but I just assumed your parents didn’t get along or something.”

“No, my parents were never married, I don’t know much besides what my dad has said about their relationship but…I just don’t believe everything he says. He’s kind of a pathological liar. Then there’s my step mom, she’s nice, I guess. Too nice.” _Stop talking._ Hal’s mouth snapped shut.

“Like I was saying I’d like to go far away. Maybe Alaska,” Dave said. Hal was silently thankful for the change of topic.

“Alaska, huh. Why Alaska?”

“I can be alone. But honestly, I’d rather die anywhere else but here. I don’t think humans were meant to stay in one place their whole lives, and sure I’ve moved a lot already and yet. It feels like I’m meant to be somewhere else, there’s a driving force in my chest some days. Some days I’m up in the middle of the night and it feels like the wind outside is howling my name and telling me, “go, go.” But where am I supposed to go? I don’t know yet, but I want to find out. I want to live life and love it.”

There was a moment of silence between them. A comfortable silence. “I know what you mean.” Is all Hal could say.

Dave stubbed out his cigarette on the floor.  “It’s getting dark, should you be heading back?” Dave asked.

Hal checked his phone for the time. A few texts from his dad were left unanswered. “Oh no, yeah I gotta go.”

“Hey, wait, why don’t I have your phone number yet?”

“That’s a good idea, here put your number in and I’ll send you a text.”

Dave took Hal’s phone and quickly typed in his number.

“Thanks, I’ll text you tonight I have to get home. See you tomorrow?” Hal asked.

“Of course, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hal smiled as he left the cabin. His face felt warm as he unlocked his phone to see Dave’s name and number before checking his dad’s messages.

‘Where are you?’

‘Answer me.’

‘Hello?’

‘That’s fine. I’m not a concerned father or anything like that. I see you’ve taken to ignoring your parents now. What would your mother think? No, n-no I’m so sorry I didn’t mean that I’m just worried, Hal, p-please understand I just don’t want you to be in any trouble, you know I want the best for you right? Right. Call me when you can.’

Hal let out a sigh as he tapped his dad’s number to call.


End file.
